Henry Wood Booth was born January 21, 1837, in the village of Cranbrook, Kent, England, the son of coppersmith Henry Gough Booth and Harriet Wood. At age five, his mother died and his father emigrated to America with his three children. The family lived for periods in Cincinnati, Ohio; Toronto, Ontario; and Buffalo, New York before returning to England where Henry Sr. set up a metalworking shop in 1850. A year later they again set sail for America and took up residence in St. Catharines, Ontario.

At age seventeen, Henry Wood Booth met Clara Louise Irene Gagnier, the eldest daughter of Maria Martel and Charles Gagnier, also of St. Catharines. They were married 18 May 1858 at Trinity Church in Toronto. Henry and Clara had ten children: Charles Henry, Alice Martel, Grace, George Gough, Edmund Wood, Theodora Marianne, Adelaide Clara Louise, Ralph Harman, Roland Bucer, and Bertha Beatrice.

By the age of twenty, Henry Wood Booth was active in temperance work, publishing in several news and temperance papers with which he was involved. At the same time, he also worked for winegrowers in the state of New York, who adopted his suggestion of distilling cheap brandy from wine furnished with extra sugar. In 1873, Henry became interested in the Reformed Episcopal Church movement. In 1874, he began publishing the Sunday Times in Toronto. The paper failed to gain acceptance and subsequently ceased publication.

Henry Wood Booth was also an inventor and received a United States patents commission during the years 1875-1887. His inventions included Ka-O-Ka, a coffee substitute, and a ventilated coffin. Booth was a prolific writer and speaker. His articles were published in the Detroit News as a religious page called "Peregrinations of a Church Tramp" and he spoke at many Detroit area churches. Out of this experience came his unsuccessful attempt to revive the practice of family prayer through the "Bell, Book and Candle Society."

Henry Wood Booth became an American citizen in September 1911 and spent his last fourteen years living in “The Cottage” at Cranbrook, the estate of his son George in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. There he built rock gardens and paths, studied, and continued writing. Henry Wood Booth died March 17, 1925; his wife Clara Gagnier Booth died April 1, 1930.